'Desdemona' explores the plight of Othello's women
Published:Sunday | November 24, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Keisha Hill, Gleaner Writer
The Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts recently held a special showing of Paula Vogel's play Desdemona: A Play About A Handkerchief, for high school students at its Arthur Wint Drive campus. The students had the opportunity to see the post-modern renaissance-flavoured feminist deconstruction of Shakespeare's classic tragedy - Othello, the Moor of Venice.
The play directed by member of faculty Dr Kelli Melson was held at the Dennis Scott Studio Theatre at the college. Sporting an all-female cast, Desdemona is a world of women in the backroom reality who live in a world controlled by men. The events in the play revolve around the titular character Desdemona, the new young wife of Othello.
She finds herself isolated and alone in a foreign land, Cyprus, where her new husband is in charge of the Venetian troops who occupy the country. Desdemona has lost the special handkerchief her husband has given her in token, and her relationship deteriorates as she continually fails to find it.
Having slept with Othello's entire encampment, Desdemona revels in her bawdy tales of conquest. Her foils and rapt listeners are the other integral and re-imagined women of this Shakespearean tragedy: Emilia, Desdemona's servant and the wife of Iago, and Bianca, a majestic whore of Cyprus. The reluctantly loyal Emilia pesters Desdemona about a military promotion for her husband. Her motive, however, is that he leaves her a wealthy widow, preferably sooner than later.
Bianca, now a street-wise, yet painfully naïve prostitute, visits Desdemona thinking she is a very good friend and fellow hooker (at least one night a week). Bianca thinks the worst when she soon discovers that Desdemona knows intimate details of the life of her lover, Cassio. Though Desdemona has never been intimate with Cassio, her life is soon in danger when her husband, Othello, also suspects her of infidelity.
Issues of female identity, sexuality, and liberty were all examined as three different women who hold very different places in the patriarchal society are viewed. They find that, ultimately, they share the same obstacles in their desire to dictate their position in the world according to their own terms.
male characters absent
The male characters from Shakespeare's play are entirely absent, but they are very important to the development of the story. Their behaviour is not significantly altered from the way we understand them in the world Shakespeare created. Iago maliciously lies, provoking Othello's jealous rage which leads to Desdemona's death.
Paula Vogel is an American playwright and university professor. She received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play, How I Learned to Drive. Vogel first came to national prominence with her AIDS-related seriocomedy The Baltimore Waltz, which won the Obie award for Best Play in 1992.
For theatre goers and general audiences, Desdemona will entertain with its use of tongue-in-cheek humour and its satirical outlook on the progression of the role of women in society. The production is rated PG16.
Students sitting English literature at the CAPE level are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity as it will help in their analysis of Shakespearean content, in particular Othello. There will also be a post-play discussion and the audience will be able to give their feedback through guided discussion.
For bookings, call the Edna Manley College School of Drama at (876) 968-0028 or Marketing Department at (876) 920-4633. Tickets cost $1,000 each and a group rate of $400 each for groups of 10 or more persons.